Dark clouds covering the whole sky, fierce wind and thunderclaps so loud that fear could consume your heart in seconds. Back of a man came into view, he was an elderly man in a golden embroidered white robe. His skin was pale white, he had unusual long thin arms and his long snow white hair danced as the wind blew.
He walked solemnly in between countless black statues of winged warriors and corpses of mythical monsters. Those statues were positioned as such that it showed their last moments before death.
Some were laid on the ground, some were stood with dignity holding their weapons, some were on their knees begging and some were in attacking position. All statues and corpses held different expressions on their faces, some were terrified, some were angry, some were sad , some had longing and some relief.
Some statues were looked like angels with pair of wings, some had two and some had six wings. They wore an armor similar to Warframes but more designer and embossed.
Among countless mythical monsters such as Chinese dragons, Qilin, nine tail fox, basilisk etc. There were statues of demons which looked similar to majestic Chinese oni. Every demon and angel like statues was 8ft to 12ft tall which made them quite intimidating and overwhelming.
Yes, that elderly man was in a battlefield and he was witnessing the aftermath of a great war with death count clearly in millions and no possible signs of life other than him. Golden blood and pitch black blood flowed on the ground mixing and staining the hem of his robe with his each passing steps.
He suddenly teleported from the middle of that battlefield, leaving a ripple in space and appeared on an edge of a small cliff. A similar sight came into view from that cliff, with countless statues and corpses spread as far as he looked, ground stained with golden and black blood, raging blue flames devouring the forest, fire embers fell like snow fall from the clouds, burned and crushed mountains like destroyed by meteorite.
Anyone could tell that the war was so fierce that it brought destruction to that planet. It was a global scale war. After few moments, he turned around a little and his face became visible. He had a long white beard and sharp facial features, he looked like an old sage who held all the secrets of the universe.
His face was expressionless but he couldn't able to hide the sadness in his dimly glowing gray eyes. His lips parted away as he said
- алар адашууда, аларга туура жол көрсөт .
And the darkness fell over.
It was a dream which held unknown meanings, a dream which Theo forget even before opening his eyes . . . . .
********
Gasp. . haah. . hah
His eyes shot open as he huffed profusely. He picked himself up to sit and realized that he was on a king size bed. After wiping tears from his eyes to clear his vision, he left speechless. Theo found himself in an extravagant luxurious room with a 2 story-ceiling built. He was so captivated that he forgot about himself momentarily as he glanced around the room
' Such grandeur room ? Where am I ?'
White marble like walls decorated with blue mandala like patterns, furnished with vintage furniture which appeared to be very expensive, a lively fire place making crackling sound, a big chandelier which held several glowing stones in the middle of the room, several portraits of unknown boy on the wall and 4 curtained large glass windows.
That room was not even compared to a royal room, it was more grandiose than any royal rooms.
- " Agh . . huh ? "
A sudden body movement revealed lot of pain from his sides and Theo found his chest, stomach and his left hand covered with bandages.
Up until that moment, Theo thought that he was dreaming but it was not the case considering he felt pain, it was too vivid and detailed for a dream. Theo realized when he was checking his body
' Wait this body . . it's not mine. '
It was so obvious because his current body looked much younger than his age and his injuries also didn't matched with his accident. After all, his legs were the first to get destroyed by that car.
' I'm familiar with the concept of body possession as I've had read about it before, but still, it's hard to digest. '
' I remembered being hit by the car and falling into the river. My condition was beyond saving, so it was clear to me that I had died in that river. Right !! that unknown voice in the river . . '
Theo knew that it was crazy to woke up in someone else's body after being dead but it was also crazy to hear someone inside the water. As he didn't believe in coincidences, he was sure that his situation was connected to that unknown voice. However, Theo concluded that it was better to take actions rather than making countless assumptions.
Theo left the bed and picked up two poker from the fire place, he went to the main door and peeked outside by slightly opening the door. As he peeked out, he saw grandeur hallway which was 3 story high
' How grandeur place is this? No one is outside, that's good for now. '
It was surprising to see so much of a luxury for the first time but that was not important for him, Theo was only thinking about his safety. Being woken up in an injured body was really inconvenient for him.
Theo closed the door and stuck both pokers between main door handles to lock it. Initially, he thought to utilize those pokers for defense in case for hostile situation but it didn't needed so he improvised.
Someone might argue that if it was a hostile situation, then Theo could have woken up in a prison or like places instead of a luxury bedroom. But for Theo, the place was not important but what comes after it, his actions were already restricted by his injured body, so it was better to be safe than sorry for him.
' Few hours are left before dawn. I need some time to figure out my situation before the arrival of any unexpected variable. '
Thought Theo as he looked around the room, then he went to the bathroom which was attached to the bedroom and yes, it was as luxurious as bedroom but what shocked him was his reflection on the mirror.
Face long wavy dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, horizontally long pointed ears like an elf with a small cut mark on left ear, fair white skin, lightly bruised elegant face and lean body. Theo found himself in the body of a 17 yr old boy.
It was obvious from the architectural style of that place to the host's body that Theo was in some kind of a fantasy world but he lacked information. Various questions popped up into Theo's mind so he decided to gather information about the place he was in.
It became clear to Theo that the room he was in belonged to the person he possessed, since the person from several portraits matched with his reflection. There was also a separate study room attached to the bedroom which had a study table, cabinets, book shelves, photo frames and a balcony behind it.
' Extravagant luxurious. '
Thought Theo, indifferent to it as he entered the study room.
He started rummaging through the books from near book shelf, searching for any information. Although Theo had never seen that language before but strangely he understood what was written there and came across various titles
'Intermediate Application of Mana, In the grace of goddess Hiera, Journey of the Paladin, Brief History of Lower Realm'
' Wait Lower Realm ? it sounds familiar, where did I heard th . . no way!! '
Book slipped through his hand and he was already running toward the balcony. Reaching at the edge of balcony, he got awestruck by the view before his eyes. In front of him laid a view of stunning medieval mega city filled with shimmering night lights.
That silent night had an unusual charm, Theo's room balcony was 10 story high from the ground and the place he was in seemed to be built on a foot of a hill so the view was spectacular.
On his right side, there stood a statue of beautiful lady, approx. 200m tall made of stone similar to alabaster. She wore a stola similar to ancient roman clothing and a thick cloak of feathers . . no, those were her folded wings started from her collarbone. She held a long staff in both hands and leaned her forehead on it. Her eyes were closed and had a thin smile on her kind face. The upper part of the staff was carved into the design of sun with a yellow glowing stone floating in the middle. She gave the appearance of an angel and also of a mother, it was an overwhelming sight.
Realizing his distraction, Theo gathered his thoughts and looked up in the starry sky and he found what he was searching for. The moon which he knew of was replaced with a planet which was 8 times larger, in waxing crescent it had a light golden glow on the bright side with visible atmosphere and clouds. But it was breathtaking on the dark side because anyone could have seen the cities light which was shining in a pattern similar to a magic circle on the continents. That planet was called Higher Realm or Divine Realm, the true world of gods.
It was very familiar to Theo. Why? Because it was his creation. It was the part of a novel Theo wrote when he was 18 but left incomplete because of his grandfather's untimely death. That novel was about two worlds and a boy on journey to defeating evil.
' So I died and then transmigrated into my own novel possessing a character that I don't even know about. '
Thought Theo and suddenly he got a splitting headache which made his breathing impossible, not even a groan left his mouth, in the verge of losing his balance he supported himself by grabbing the wall of balcony.
Memories of original host were flooded into Theo's mind and after few seconds his headache dissipated as he understood his existence. The body that Theo possessed was of Val Kelnar the youngest son of the 45th Supreme Leader, a sin, a seedless.
********
The novel which Theo wrote was incomplete and unpublished. The settings which he provided in the novel was of a high fantasy, a magical world which was beautiful but extremely dangerous.
The story revolved around two worlds. The first was Divine Realm, a sacred world of miracles which was filled with divinity. It was a true paradise, a land where gods walked, where mythical creatures roamed and where many legends created. It was also the moon of Lower Realm, signified as the guiding light in darkness.
Similar to mana, divinity also used to fuel magic but it was more powerful and refined than mana. If mana was considered as the force of nature then divinity was the catalyst for miracles.
Second was the Lower Realm (where Theo was in), it was a theocratic world where only mana existed. Thousands of years ago, gods had left their seeds in lower realm to prosper. Since then, many were born with the seed of their ancestor god which granted them the ability to use divinity and they were called as Seed Bearers.
But not all descendants were blessed with the seed, and those who were born without a seed called as Seedless. Lower realm's history was written with peace, it was a paradise in its own where different races lived peacefully with each other.
Inside the city walls, seedless people lived under the protection of divine family, because for them outside world was brimming with danger. Ferocious monster races, weird magical creatures, ancient mysteries, unknown treasures, unexplainable magical phenomena, cursed places and the list could go on.
Majority of seedless people were not powerful enough to seek adventure but obviously, exceptions existed. The magical world was fair to those who had courage and unfair to those who thought to be so.
Val Kelnar, the original host of body was also a seedless and that was his biggest misfortune which made his life utterly tragical. Why? Because he was the son of Supreme Leader, because he was the part of Divine Family.
The family who carried the pure bloodline of a god from generations called as the Divine Family. But the question was, what made the divine family different from other seed bearers and what made their blood special ?
The blood carried by the Divine Family was of the first children of High Gods. First children of high gods were called as Auroras, they were extremely powerful and lower realm was under their watchful eyes.
About High Gods, there were total 7 of them and they were called as the 7 pillars of universe. That was all known about them in the lower realm.
Other seed bearers apart from the divine family were the descendants of lesser gods.
The head of the divine family which was titled as Supreme Leader granted the authority similar to of a ruler. Gods (Auroras) tasked their respective divine family to ensure the safety and justice for their city, to protect people and to live peacefully.
From a long time, Supreme Leaders were called as Vicar, which meant the proxy of god. Their words were treated as the words from god, their action were considered as the act of god. That was why the divine family was considered as the most holy ones and for many, they were considered as gods, they were respected highly and many even worshiped them.
Seedless were considered as the abandoned children of gods, treated as a symbol of sin they were looked down by the seed bearers. It was first time in hundred of years that a seedless was born in a divine family which was Val, so things were never better for him.
' He was a really unlucky boy .. Sigh .. and now, those misfortunes are mine to carry.'
Theo didn't know what happened to the soul of Val and actually he couldn't care less about him. In Theo's opinion, death was a gift for Val, although Theo can't sympathize with Val due to his strict control on emotions but he understood Val's situation while fiddling with his memories.
Since Val was born without a seed, his life was a tragedy in itself. He was treated as a sin and a mistake. Some even thought of him as a sign of doom for the divine family and his mother was one of them. Val's mother hated him since the day of his birth but only for the sake of Kelnar she tolerated his existence. But it didn't took long before reaching the limit.
When Val was 7 years old, his mother Eira Kelnar got so sick of his existence that she ordered her knight to throw him into the river. Val being the youngest child had two elder brothers, his elder brother Zion Kelnar, the 2nd son of supreme leader, tortured him in the name of training and beat him to half death state for every single day. Yes, the injuries on Val were the gift from him.
Val's father Asvaldur Kelnar, the Supreme Leader and his eldest brother Zelos Kelnar feigned ignorance to his existence.
They broke him so thoroughly that Val had given up on everything, every night he cried silently, he begged and wept in front of goddess Hiera for forgiveness and after reaching the limit of his frustration, he tried to step on the edge of balcony to end his life but from past 10 years, Val didn't able to mustered enough courage to jump. He was weak in both retaliating and giving up.
So basically, the divine family was like a royal family and the Supreme Leader was like a king. The name of that city which was under the govern of Val's family was Kelnar.
Kelnar, the holy city of goddess Hiera, one of the 8 mega cities in lower realm with population around 6 million. Goddess Hiera was the symbol of new beginning, 30% citizen of Kelnar were seed bearers and 70% were seedless. The divine family carried the name of the city and it was like that from the foundation of the city and by the will of gods.
If someone given a second chance to live then they would have rejoiced and lived their new life without any regrets. They would do everything they want to do and make each day count, but Theo was different.
Before his death, Theo realized the true purpose of a human life and even though his anatomy was changed but his goal remained the same. According to Hinduism philosophy it was called Moksha.